Dr Ronan Lee is an Irish-Australian Doctoral Prize Fellow at Loughborough University London where he researches the meaning of social vitality for Rohingya refugees. In 2021 he was awarded the Early Career Emerging Scholar Prize by the International Association of Genocide Scholars. He was formerly a visiting scholar at Queen Mary University of London’s International State Crime Initiative. His research interests include Myanmar, the Rohingya, genocide, hate speech, and politics.

Ronan’s PhD research involved conducting long-term field work in Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Thailand during 2014-2017. Ronan’s PhD thesis titled “Myanmar’s Rohingya Genocide: Rohingya Perspectives of History and Identity” considered the identity, history, and politics of the Rohingya. This work aimed to amplify the voice of Rohingya participants and involved in-depth interviews with Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, in Yangon, in the Bangladesh camps, and among the Rohingya diaspora living further afield from Myanmar.

Ronan has travelled extensively in Myanmar, first visiting the country to witness the political changes associated with its transition from direct military rule to a quasi-civilian government. He witnessed Myanmar’s 2010 general election and met with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi shortly after her release from house arrest. Ronan has provided comment for the BBC, Al Jazeera, TIME, and the Guardian and has written widely about Myanmar including for Australian Fairfax publications, Myanmar Times, The Conversation, Malaysia’s New Straits Times.

Ronan won Deakin University’s 2015 Neil Archbold Memorial Medal for his journal article “A Politician, Not an Icon: Aung San Suu Kyi’s Silence on Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya” in Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations.

Ronan’s professional background is in politics, media, and public policy. He was formerly a Queensland State Member of Parliament (2001-2009) and served on the frontbench as a Parliamentary Secretary (2006-2008) in portfolios including Justice, Main Roads and Local Government, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships. He has also worked as a senior government advisor, and as an election strategist and campaign manager.

Ronan Tweets about politics and human rights with a focus on Myanmar and the Rohingya @Ronan_Lee

Growing up in Ballyjamesduff, County Cavan, Ireland, Ronan was educated at St Patrick’s College, Cavan and St Columban’s College, Brisbane. He has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland, a Master of International Relations from Monash University. Ronan’s Master’s thesis was titled ‘A Politician, Not an Icon. Aung San Suu Kyi’s silence on Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya’. Ronan’s PhD is from Melbourne’s Deakin University.

In 2001 Ronan was elected to Queensland’s State Parliament and served three terms as Member for Indooroopilly where he focused on delivering better public transport and stronger protections for the environment and wilderness places.

As MP for Indooroopilly, Ronan was a Queensland Parliamentary Temporary Speaker/Deputy Speaker (2005-2006), Chair of a Budget Estimates Committee (2006) and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Communities, Disability Services, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Seniors and Youth (2006-2007), Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Main Roads and Local Government (2007-2008), and Parliamentary Secretary to the Attorney-General, Minister for Justice and Minister Assisting the Premier in Western Queensland (2008).

A member of The Wilderness Society Ronan was a vocal advocate for many environmental issues, including protecting Queensland’s wild rivers, ending broad scale tree clearing and banning duck shooting. Passionate about protecting Cape York for future generations and wanting to see Tassie’s wilderness and high conservation value places protected, he left the Queensland Labor Government in 2008 because of their policy inaction on tackling climate change, failures on important environmental policies like promotion of the renewable energy sector, failure to protect wilderness rivers and failing develop a better public transport system. Ronan became Queensland’s first MP to be a member of the Greens. At the 2009 Queensland election Ronan didn’t retain his seat as a Green but achieved the Queensland Greens highest ever vote at a State Election of 25.93% and the Queensland Greens highest ever state-wide vote of 8.4%.